Legal Résumé Guide
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Legal Résumé Guide Eckstein Hall, Suite 240 1215 W. Michigan St. Milwaukee, WI 53233 414.288.3313 [email protected] CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION . 1 II. FORMAT AND STYLE . .1 A. Avoid Résumé Templates. 1 B. Font. 2 C. Paper. 2 D. Margins . 2 E. Page Length . 2 F. Reverse Chronological Order. 3 G. Proofread . .3 III. BASIC OUTLINE . .3 A. Heading . .3 B. Education . 3 1. Guidelines for Law School Class Rank and GPA. .4 2. Rounding Up GPA and Class Rank. .4 3. False or Misleading Information . .4 4. Part-time/Full-time Program . .4 5. Grade Improvement. .4 6. Awards, Honors and Activities . .4 7. High School. .5 C. Publications . .5 D. Experience . .6 1. Headings . .6 2. Describing the Position . .7 3. Presenting Employment History . .9 E. Interests, Hobbies, Special Skills, Language Proficiency, Community Activities, Other Activities. .9 F. Professional Associations . 10 IV. ITEMS YOU SHOULD NOT INCLUDE . .10 A. Career Objective . .10 B. Summary of Qualities . .10 C. References. 10 D. Skills . 10 V. MISCELLANEOUS. .11 A. Confidentiality . .11 B. Try to Avoid Gaps in Your Chronology. .11 C. Post-Law School Résumé: Experience First . .11 APPENDIX: Sample Résumés. .12 I. INTRODUCTION Your résumé is an important part of your job search. It should be a brief, focused, dynamic marketing tool that conveys your key credentials for a future position. A résumé generally has two functions: to interest a prospective employer sufficiently enough to invite you to an interview and to serve as the catalyst for interview discussion. The importance of the résumé should be reflected in the amount of thought, time, and effort you put into its preparation. A poorly prepared résumé provides Your résumé represents you; it speaks an easy reason for the employer to to the reader in terms of its content and its eliminate a candidate. appearance. Judgments will be made about you as a candidate based upon the physical appearance of your résumé. Many employers will summarily discard résumés that are presented on poor quality paper when hard copy is required or otherwise contain typos, spelling errors, formatting issues and/or are saved in an electronic file source that isn’t accessible or alters formatting. The concern is that if you do not care enough to invest the time and effort necessary to prepare an attractive and accurate résumé of your own credentials, what kind of effort will you be willing to put in on behalf of the employer and/or its clients to produce a first-class work product? Many legal employers receive several hundred résumés for a single position. A poorly prepared résumé provides an easy reason for the employer to eliminate a candidate without even looking at the content of the document. II. FORMAT AND STYLE Legal résumés have standards for format and style that you must adhere to. Within the standards there are options for presentation of information. Know the accepted options and be deliberate in your choices regarding format. You may choose any one of the many acceptable résumé formats so long as the format emphasizes your strengths, does not provide inappropriate or unnecessary information, and can be quickly scanned by the reader. A prospective employer may not give more than 30 seconds to reviewing your résumé, so it should be designed to focus the reader’s attention on relevant information. You are marketing yourself as a professional, so your résumé should appear professional. Most often you will provide your résumé electronically as an attached document or through an online application system. Save your résumé as a PDF and confirm retention of formatting prior to submitting a document electronically. If you are submitting a hard copy of your résumé, it should be word processed and printed using a quality printer. Although this is not an iron-clad rule, try to avoid abbreviations. Permissible abbreviations include state names and college degrees. An example where you should avoid abbreviation is the word “memos,” as it should be written out as memorandums or memoranda. A. Avoid Résumé Templates. Templates and their forced construction undermine one of the basic rules of résumé construction: Your experiences, your information and the specific audience of your résumé should dictate the form and structure of the document. Templates function in the converse. The template imposes a structure that frequently dictates where you can locate information and how much information you can place on the document. Moreover, most templates are geared towards a business résumé, not a legal résumé, and to individuals with extensive work history, not a law student seeking his/her first legal position. B. Font. Generally, you should use between 10- and 12-point font size for the body of the document. Font size up to 14-point can be used in the heading. Never use a font size less than 10- point. Regarding font type, it is best to stick with common, traditional fonts such Times New Roman, Courier, Arial and Cambria. Avoid using multiple fonts. C. Paper. When you present a hard copy of your résumé, use high-grade quality white, off-white, or a pale grade shade of 25% or greater cotton bond 8½-inch x 11-inch paper. D. Margins. Use standard ¾-inch or 1-inch margins. Although the top margin can be a bit smaller (e.g., 7/10-inch), the right and left margins should be no less than ¾ inches. The bottom margin can be as small as ½ inch. There should be a balance of white space on the page. E. Page Length. A one-page résumé is highly preferred, especially for first-year students with no legal experience. Individuals with substantial professional experience and/or graduate degrees might warrant a two-page résumé. In an effort to limit your résumé to one page, do not (i) reduce the font size to squeeze the information on one page so that an employer A one‐page résumé needs a magnifying glass to read it, (ii) reduce the margins and/or line spacing thereby covering the page with information and is highly preferred. leaving minimal white space, or (iii) eliminate information that an employer might consider relevant. Try to get all your information on a single page, but rather than being overly concerned with the length of your résumé, it is better to focus on delivering what is really important to the employer, e.g., your academic success and extracurricular activities at MULS and any legal or legal-related experience. Often undergraduate and non-legal experiences can be eliminated or greatly reduced as they do not advance the professional brand you are promoting with your résumé. If your résumé does warrant two pages, avoid the trap of providing so much information that the employer can make a decision on your candidacy without an interview. Also, if you have a two-page résumé, include a header on the second page that serves to identify it as the second page of your résumé (see, e.g., Sample Résumé #7 in the Appendix). Legal Résumé Guide, p. 2 F. Reverse Chronological Order. All entries on your résumé should be listed All entries on your résumé should in reverse chronological order within each be listed in reverse chronological section, beginning with the most recent and order within each section. working backwards. G. Proofread. Proofread your final copy very carefully to be certain there are no spelling, grammatical or typographical errors. Proper nouns, e.g., names of schools and employers, are most commonly misspelled. Note that the default setting in a Microsoft Word document is to not spellcheck words that are typed in uppercase, which means that it is easy for a misspelled word in a heading to go undetected. To change the default setting in Word, select “File” then select “Options” at the bottom of the menu. From the menu select “Proofing” and deselect “Ignore words in UPPERCASE.” III. BASIC OUTLINE Items on your résumé should be presented in order of importance and relevance to the reader. In the initial scan of your résumé, the reader will be looking for something about you to induce a closer examination of your credentials. If that something does not grab the reader’s attention right away, your chances for further consideration are greatly reduced. The following guidelines primarily are geared toward law students and recent graduates who are seeking legal or legal-related positions. A. Heading. The heading of your résumé should include your name, street address, email address, and telephone number(s) where you can be reached. If you include both your home and cell/mobile phone numbers, identify them with “(H),” or “(Home),” and “(C)” or “(M)” or “(Cell)” or “(Mobile).” List both your school address and a permanent address only if you are seeking a job.